Sorrows Drowned
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Set after S6 finale "The Grand Gesture". After Gabby Dawson walks out and leaves for Puerto Rico, Severide takes Casey on a guys' night out to forget his problems.
1. Chapter 1

Sorrows Drowned

A/N: So naturally this story won't actually feature Gabby Dawson, but it also will not include Stella Kidd. Here's a story that breaks away from any and all ideas of Gabby/Casey repairing their relationship and instead focuses on Casey moving forward without her. If you weren't too broken up about Gabby leaving the show, this might be the story for you. Hope everybody enjoys, all standard disclaimers apply, don't own, don't sue, please read and review.

"Puerto Rico, heh?" Christopher Herrmann asked that night at Molly's as everybody was gathered around Matt Casey as he finished recapping the events of the past couple days. "Ah geez."

Casey was seated on a bar stool, had already had a few drinks, and looked two steps away from his face hitting the bar top. He'd wanted to give everyone fair warning incase they didn't get the message that Gabby would not be showing up for duty on next shift. Hard as it was to talk about, he'd called everyone to Molly's so he could tell them all at once and get it over with.

He made eye contact with nobody, just focused on his bottle and responded, "Yep. I tried calling her, left a dozen messages...she said she's not coming back."

The crew from Firehouse 51 had this meeting with an additional guest, Gabby's brother Antonio, who was seated on the next stool and took in the lieutenant's whole story before voicing his own thoughts on the matter.

"I tried reaching out to her, she basically told me the same thing," he said. "I'm sorry, Matt, I wish I could say something more definite. I don't know what's going through her head right now...just give it time, she'll come to her senses."

Matt grunted something incoherent in response, his eyes appeared to be focusing on something further and further away the more time passed.

"We're really sorry, Matt," Sylvie told him. "I'm sure she'll come back."

"She's right, Casey," Otis added, "you guys have been through everything together. This is just another stumbling block."

"Besides, she'd have to come back either way, if she really doesn't want to be in a relationship anymore, she'd have to come back to file for divorce," Brett added.

That earned her a death glare from everyone else in the immediate vicinity.

"Sorry," she said, mentally kicking herself. Ever since the call she and Gabby took the other day, she hadn't been quite all there.

Casey grunted again and raised his hands to his face and grumbled something else unintelligible.

"Guys," Herrmann addressed the group standing around the lieutenant and less than subtly motioned that they back off and give Casey some space to take in what had happened.

Antonio reached over as he stood up and clapped a hand on Matt's shoulder sympathetically, "You need anything, man, you just let me know, okay? You're still family."

"Thanks," Matt responded as he placed his hands back on the counter.

"We'll see you later, man," Cruz said as he and Otis also moved to leave.

Slowly, everybody backed off from Casey and left him to his own devices as he remained seated on the bar stool just barely hanging in there.

"Sorry about that, Casey," Herrmann said, "It's foot-mouth disease season, nobody knows what to say, this has taken us all by surprise."

Casey rubbed his eyes and said with a groan, "I understand, Herrmann."

"Can I get you anything else?"

Matt touched his bottle and said, "Keep 'em coming."

"Can I call you a cab when this is over?" Herrmann asked lightly.

"I'm fine, Herrmann."

"Yeah, I know...you got it, lieutenant," Christopher said as he went to get another beer.

Matt finished his current beer and steadily went to work on the second one, trying to ignore the bright lights and the loud music and the sounds of other people, especially couples, out having a good time enjoying themselves. Through the corner of his eye he was able to recognize the image of Kelly Severide, standing off the side, just as he had all evening since Casey came in. Even through just the corner of his eye, Casey could see Severide had his hands in his pockets, one foot in front of the other, and his back against the wall.

"What do you want, Severide?" he asked. He knew Kelly had been hanging around through the whole conversation, waiting for something, so he decided to just get it over with.

Silently, somberly, Kelly walked over to the Truck lieutenant. He looked at Matt, and finally asked him, hesitantly, "Can I speak frankly? You won't bite my head off if you don't like it?"

"Go ahead, Severide," Casey said as he took another drink, "Kick me while I'm down. I'm getting used to it."

"No, Casey, not that," Kelly said as he sat down next to him.

If Matt had been in a more sober state of mind, he might have taken better notice of the wide eyed look on Severide's face, a look that might've been more appropriate on an amateur about to tight rope walk over the Grand Canyon. As it was, he barely noticed the borderline-petrified look on the Squad lieutenant's face as he prepared to jump into what he had planned, to hell with how the Truck lieutenant would react.

"We all go back a long way, and I love Gabby," Kelly told him, "but let's face it, she has problems."

"Ya think?" Casey asked as he took another swig of his beer.

"I mean it, Casey," Severide said. "And you knew it, you had to know it. Everything always had to be her way, no matter what anybody else thought, she was more controlling than any other woman on the planet." He could see he wasn't really getting through, so he cut to one part of the chase. "Remember that whole alderman fiasco?"

"What about it?" Casey asked.

"I told you back then if I were any kind of friend, I'd talk you out of it," Kelly told him. "That wasn't your idea, that was Gabby needing to have her own way, as usual. And what came out of it? A lot of grief for you. The billboards, the character assassination, she didn't care because it wasn't directed at _her_. And how about having to pick between your First Responders' bill to help every firefighter and paramedic who gets injured on the job, and Gabby bitching about you're not sensitive enough to her dad's needs while he's leeching off of you guys?"

"Severide, I'm really not in the mood," Matt said.

"What about now, Casey?" Kelly asked. "What about last night?"

Matt looked straight ahead and wouldn't answer. For a split second, Severide saw Casey's right eye, bright from the reflection of the lights, and the next second he dropped his head on his folded arms and started sobbing. Kelly almost felt sorry for opening his mouth in the first place, but it was obvious from watching Casey that this was inevitable. He'd likely been holding everything together since Gabby walked out, and now, probably especially with a little liquid help in letting his guard down, everything just came crashing down.

Kelly reached over and patted Casey on the back, tried to think of something to say that would help, but what the hell did he know? He'd never been married, not _really_ anyway, certainly hadn't been through near as much stuff as Casey had with Dawson.

"Hey, buddy, it's alright," he told Matt, "I know it's bad now, but you'll get through this." With his free hand, Kelly signaled to Herrmann, who came over and dropped a handful of cocktail napkins on the bar, and exited without a word.

"Come on, Casey," Severide more or less pulled his friend back into something resembling an upright position, and handed him one of the napkins. "Come on, I'll take you home."

Matt folded the napkin over and blew his nose, and Kelly inched back on his stool as it sounded like somebody trying to force a tube of toothpaste through the holes in a sieve.

"I can't go back," Casey said, "everything there reminds me of Gabby."

Finding his voice again, he discarded the napkin and told Severide, "It's ironic, isn't it? All I ever wanted was to have kids...now Gabby walked out on me because she wanted them more than I did."

"You wanted her safe more than you wanted kids," Kelly told him.

"I still want kids, I told her..." Casey sucked in a choked breath, "we could adopt...we could get a surrogate...she wasn't having it. If she couldn't have the baby herself..."

"I told you, everything has to be exactly what she wants and to hell with reality interfering or the consequences," Kelly said. "Now think about this one...Matt, stay with me." He wanted to make sure he had at least some of the lieutenant's attention as he said, "What do you think Gabby would've done if it had been a woman they treated on call, who the doctor said it was too risky for her to get pregnant, and she decided to do it anyway? What do you think Gabby would say then?"

Casey thought about it, and shook his head. "I don't know."

"She would be on that woman's case to be thankful for the family she already had and stop being a stupid, arrogant bitch who's going to kill herself to prove a point," Kelly said. "That's what she'd say, and you know it."

"She wouldn't say that," Matt told him.

"In so many words, no, but you know she'd be thinking that exact thing," Severide replied. "If she's self centered enough she wants to die having a baby, that's her problem, but if she does, that's not on you, you did the right thing, buddy, you put her health first."

"And she left me," Casey said. "What sense does that make?"

"I told you, man, she's got problems," Kelly said. "It never mattered how bad an idea was, if she came up with it, she _had_ to have everything her way, and the second she wanted it. And you know it, how many times did she bite your head off because you didn't automatically agree with her? Did she even bother to ever hear your side out?"

Matt picked up another napkin and quickly dabbed at his eyes, trying to regain some appearance of being 'alright'.

"Matt, you're the only one that can answer this because you were the only one there," Kelly told him. "Do you think it's over, or is there a chance that you two can reconcile this?"

Casey turned to him, and for the rest of his life Severide would never forget that look on Casey's face as he barely managed to choke out, "Kelly...it's over."

With that admission came a new batch of sobs wracking through him. Severide pulled Casey towards him and hugged his friend. They had their professional and personal differences and often were likely to bite each other's head off sooner than anything, but that didn't change the fact they were friends, despite the turf war that often broke out between Truck and Squad at 51, they were _brothers_ on the job, and it was killing him seeing Casey like this. He was well aware of the fact there were two sides to each story, and that Dawson had her own reasons for doing what she did, but he thought it was pretty low that she could storm out like this and leave everyone else to pick up the pieces of the mess _she_ had made. It had been his understanding that something went wrong on the last call she and Brett had gone out on, and those two had gotten into it as well, only it had been Brett who'd accused Dawson of not having her back. It seemed to Kelly that if Gabby had actually stuck around instead of running 2,000 miles away like a coward, that she would have in time effectively isolated herself from everyone she worked with. He wasn't sure what her problem was but in a way, he was glad she was gone, at least now they could start being honest about everything without her trademark Gabby Dawson death stares for having her feelings hurt or her 'authority' undermined.

"It's okay, buddy, it's okay," Severide told the man who was now crying into his shoulder. "Things will get better, trust me."

Kelly was not oblivious to the fact that some of the bar patrons were looking at them, and he didn't care. If anybody wanted to make something of what was going on, he'd kick all their asses. And as if a cue, Herrmann came back over and without saying a word, got the message across asking if there was anything he should do to help. Kelly shook his head and motioned for Herrmann to let him do this alone. Christopher nodded in response and went back to his work.

After a few minutes, Casey pulled himself back together and adjusted his seated position on the bar stool. Kelly ordered them both a couple more beers and joined his friend.

"Look, I know it's hard to deal with right now, but it's Dawson's loss, not yours," Kelly told him. "To hell with her."

"That's not a nice thing to say about somebody who worked in our House for so many years and was part of the family, Severide," Casey said.

"It's true. She's forcing me to pick between you and her...I pick you. Hey, you're more fun anyway. She and I couldn't go out and meet women together...Shay and I used to...then she started going to clubs that wouldn't let me in, you and me, we could go out and have a good time meeting women. And you could find the right one now. You can still have kids, you can still have the family you want, Gabby just wasn't the woman to have it with. Like I said, her loss, you can do better." He quickly amended that statement. "You _will_ do better. You're a great guy, you could have any woman you want."

"I _wanted_ Gabby. We'd been through everything together, she was the one there for me through everything, Hallie leaving me, the whole mess with Voight, when Hallie was killed, when Heather got arrested and I had to take care of her boys, the thing with Jack Nesbitt, Katya's murder..."

"Excuse me for saying so, Casey, but I think you just got used to her company," Kelly told him. "She _was_ always there so you never had to look for anyone else, it was easy."

Matt looked at him skeptically and responded, "Tell me again, Kelly, how many women have _you_ been with?"

Severide laughed awkwardly and remarked, "I never said I was looking for commitment, I wasn't looking to get married."

"You _did_ get married," Casey reminded him.

"Yeah, drunken night in Vegas wedding, age old story, 90% of which are annulled all the time, you know that," Kelly said. "That was a whim, it wasn't anything like you were looking for with Gabby."

Casey thought about it for a minute and finally said, "I guess you're right."

Kelly was worried what might happen if Matt had too much time to dwell on what was going on, and thought of something. He stood up and told Casey, as he grabbed the other lieutenant by the wrist, "Come on, Casey, let's get out of here, I know just the thing to lift your spirits."

But Casey wouldn't move, and he told Severide, "I'm not going with you to a cheap strip club."

"Oh come on, Casey!" Kelly said. "It always worked to cheer Shay up."

"Incase you didn't notice, Severide, I'm not Shay," Matt told him.

"Oh believe me, I noticed," Kelly replied.

"No offense," Matt said as he took another drink of his beer, "but I think I have just a little higher standards than Shay."

"No offense," Kelly returned, "but your standards are how you wound up here."

And that was when Kelly knew he'd said the wrong thing.

Luckily Casey didn't seem to notice, and instead he responded, "Fair enough."

Severide decided to try again, "Come on, Matt, let's get out of here and go to another bar."

"I don't want to go to another bar, I can stay here and get falling down drunk just as easily, thank you," Casey told him.

"Who's talking about getting drunk?" Severide asked. "I mean let's go to another bar where we don't know the people working there and pick up a couple waitresses."

Casey snorted and asked, "What is that, the Kelly Severide guide to dating?"

"Hey, what is it they say? Fall off one horse, best thing to do is find another one and get back on," Kelly said.

"That sounds like something you'd say alright," Matt started to slur his words, "I was right, asking you for relationship advice is like asking for fitness tips from Mouch."

Kelly looked at him with a sincere smile and told him, "Casey, I promise if you come with me, before the night's over you won't even be _thinking_ about Dawson."

"I'm probably going to regret this," Casey picked up his bottle and drained the last few ounces of beer in it. "Okay, let's go."

"You're sure?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah."

"You're sure it's over?"

Casey nodded.

"You trust me?" Kelly asked.

Casey shrugged cluelessly.

"Okay," Severide said, "give me your hand, Casey."

"Why?" Matt asked as he raised his right hand.

Severide reached around it and grabbed Casey's left wrist. "This hand."

Casey watched in something akin to disbelief as Severide pulled the wedding band off his ring finger.

"I'll hold onto this incase you change your mind," Kelly said as he pocketed it. "Trust me, women are more interested without that."

"Speaking from experience?" Casey asked.

"Herrmann," Severide reached in his wallet and put some bills on the counter, "if this doesn't cover it, put the rest on my tab."

"Wait a minute," Christopher said as he came over towards them, " _you're_ the designated driver, Severide? Did hell freeze over after all?"

"Pray for me, Herrmann," Casey slurred as Kelly helped him towards the exit.

"I think you'll need it!" Herrmann called after the lieutenant.

"Let's go, we got a long night ahead of us," Kelly said.

"So where're we going?" Casey asked Severide as they walked out into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

"Excuse me, miss," Kelly struggled to be heard over the music and chatter of the obscenely neon bright sports bar he'd taken Casey to, as he tried to get the attention of a waitress passing by. He slipped her a $10 bill and asked her, raising his voice to be heard over the pounding music, the game on TV and the customers screaming at it, "Will you kiss my friend? His girl just left him and he needs someone to cheer him up."

The blonde waitress in the skin tight outfit looked at him and asked, "Who's your friend?"

"He's over there," Kelly pointed to the other side of the bar. Severide hadn't been paying attention or he would've seen that Casey had already started talking with two other women at a table, one blonde, one brunette, and both of them dressed in tight animal print clothes.

"So what does an alderman do?" the tall blonde woman in purple zebra stripes asked him.

"Gets his ass kicked left, right and every which way for trying to do the right thing," Casey said, "the only way he can work without everybody trying to kill him is if he fleeces all the good people to keep his own pockets lined and give leeway to all the criminals."

"Sounds like a guy I used to date," the shorter curly haired brunette woman in leopard spots said.

"I bet you looked hot in a suit," the first woman told him.

Casey did a slow double take towards her and asked, "And how much have _you_ had to drink tonight?"

As a response, the woman laughed and then pushed her chair back, and the next thing Casey knew, she was on his lap trying to kiss him. His responses were slowed enough by the booze he'd drunk all night that his brain couldn't figure out how to react. Before he could figure it out, she pulled back and was grinning down at him.

"Do you want to get out of here and go someplace more private?" she asked with a tantalizing smile.

"And do what?" Casey asked.

She rolled her eyes and told her girl friend, "It's going to be another one of those nights."

"Casey," Severide said as he walked over with the waitress on his arm. "How ya doing, buddy?"

"I don't know, where am I?" Casey drunkenly asked as the blonde woman got off his lap.

"Matt Casey, I'd like you to meet..." Kelly turned to the waitress.

"Vicky," she said.

"Hi," Casey waved, and turned to the women with him, "And I'd like you to meet..." but the names failed him.

The one who kissed him said, "I'm Jane."

The second one added, "I'm Cheetah" without so much as batting an eye.

"I think I saw this movie," Kelly told Vicky. He turned to them and asked, "So let me get this straight...you're Jane."

"Right."

"And you're Cheetah?"

"Yeah."

Kelly pointed towards the lowcut top 'Cheetah' was wearing and asked, "And what are their names?"

Without missing a beat, the woman pointed to each one and answered, "Eyes. Off."

"Cute."

"Matt," Jane said, "They're getting ready to start Whirlyball, do you want to play with us?"

If he'd been a little more sober he might've picked up on an innuendo in there somewhere, as it was he was too drunk to think past the literal stage.

Casey looked to Kelly and asked cluelessly, "Have we done that before?"

"Live it up, buddy," Severide told him, "Tonight that's the _only_ driving you're gonna do."

"Says the man who gets his keys taken every night at last call," Matt told Cheetah, "do you see something _wrong_ with this picture?"

"Come on, Matt, it'll be fun," Jane said as she pulled him to his feet.

Severide turned to Vicky and told her, "I gotta start taking that guy with me more often when I go out drinking."

"Well he seems to be having a good time now," the waitress replied.

"Yeah, thanks anyway."

"No problem," she said as she handed him his money back.

"It's alright, keep it," Severide told her.

"Thanks," she said, and headed back to the bar.

"Hey, fireman," Cheetah called to Severide, "come on, join us."

Why not? Even sober Kelly doubted Casey would know what to do with two women, drunk he'd be lucky to get anywhere with one, might as well help lighten the load.

"So we playing the same team?" Kelly asked as he joined them at the other side of the bar.

"Now what fun would that be?" she asked. "You get red, we get yellow."

"This should be interesting," Severide said to himself.

In fact it turned out to be anything but. While everyone else was maneuvering their Whirlybugs around the rink to catch the ball and get closer to the goal, Casey tossed his scoop away and seemed intent on just ramming into everybody he came across. Several times somebody yelled at him that rear ending the other players wasn't allowed, all he did was double around and hit them again. Halfway through the game he set his sights on Severide and rammed into him all across the rink.

"Cut that out!" Kelly yelled over towards him.

Instead, Casey swerved to the side then came at him again and knocked into him again. Somehow the two of them managed to maneuver around all the other bugs who were colliding with one another, and Casey chased him clear around the rink and rammed into him again.

* * *

"I get the feeling we're not going to be allowed back here anytime soon," Severide said after all four of them were booted from the game for causing a ruckus amongst the other players.

"Eh, don't pay that guy any mind," Jane told him, "he's just sore because we're in here every night, and he accuses us of driving away the other customers."

"Oh yeah? You meet a lot of guys here?"

"Meeting them's easy, finding any worth taking home is the real challenge," Jane said.

"That's because you make the mistake of letting them know where you live," Cheetah told her. She turned to Kelly and added, "My philosophy's simple, no phone numbers, no addresses, if you think you have a winner, just run, do not walk, to the nearest motel with nice sheets."

Severide choked on a laugh. "You sound like a riot."

"You should see me on one of my better nights," she replied.

"Still, it seems pretty packed here," Severide said as he looked around.

"Yeah but it's still dead," Cheetah replied. "Let's get out of here and find some place that's jumping."

"Hey," Jane looked around, "where's the other guy?"

"Casey?" Kelly looked around and didn't see him anywhere. "Stay here, I'll check the men's room."

Severide pushed his way past 20 people in the middle of the floor and headed over to the restrooms and went in, and found Matt collapsed on the floor by the sink.

"Casey! Get off that floor, you don't know where it's been!" Severide said as he bent down, grabbed Casey under his armpits and pulled him to his feet. Looking at him at eye level, Kelly was able to see that Matt had been crying again.

"What's the matter, Casey?"

"I miss Gabby," Matt choked out as he moved over to the sink and bent over retching.

"Ah geez," Kelly said as he turned on the faucet and rubbed the Truck lieutenant's back, "Easy, easy, breathe, Casey, breathe."

Casey cupped a hand under the faucet to catch the water and rinsed his mouth out and told Severide as he stood up straight again. "When we got off the rink, I saw this beautiful Latina girl in a black dress and she looked _just_ like Gabby."

"Casey, we came here to _forget_ about Gabby, remember?"

"I can't! We were married for two years, you can't just forget that."

"Oh if it were me married to her, I bet I could," Severide told him. "Come on, Casey, we got two gorgeous women out there waiting on us." He took in his friend's disheveled appearance and told him, "First we gotta make you more presentable. Sit down and I'll see what I can do."

Casey sat on the sink's granite counter and sighed as Kelly tried to pat the worst wrinkles out of his jacket.

The door swung open and Cheetah walked in. "What's wrong with him?"

Severide turned around. "You can't come in here, this is the men's room."

"Oh yeah," she snorted, "like that's ever stopped me before." She inched up on Casey like she was approaching a wild animal and asked, "What's the matter, honey? Ain't you ever seen a couple real women before?"

"His wife walked out on him the other night," Severide explained as he pulled a couple paper towels out of the dispenser, "he's taking it pretty hard. That's why I brought him here, to try and get his mind off of it."

"You don't say," she replied with a chuckle, "funny how things work out. Jane's just getting over a breakup with her man too."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, give me those," the brunette woman took the paper towels and ran them under the faucet, she bunched them up and used one to wash off Casey's tear streaked face, and the other to wet down his hair. "He was a real piece of work, total control freak, everything had to be his way, had to have what he wanted _when_ he wanted it, otherwise he'd raise all hell."

"Sounds like their exes would get along perfectly," Kelly said. "I mean for the ten seconds before they kill each other."

"Yeah well, Jane stuck with him for six months, kept figuring it would get better, he'd change..." she rolled her eyes, "dumbest thing anybody in the world ever thought. People don't change, and if they do, it's not because of someone else."

"Amen," Severide said as he watched Cheetah transform Casey into looking halfway sober and more than halfway decent, and he couldn't help commenting, "you're good."

She laughed and replied, "Honey, if I were good I'd be doing this regularly. As it is I am the eternal bachelorette. Jane wants a guy who commits, I'm just looking for a good time, and I happen to know those don't come with a long shelf life."

"I second that motion," Kelly said. "So how drunk would you have to get Jane for her to take Casey home with her?"

She turned and looked at him oddly and replied, "Please, those sad eyes and this baby face, that's all it takes to get her going. If your friend wasn't already bombed out of his skull they would've already hooked up in the parking lot. As it is, I'm not sure he'd even know how in his current state of mind."

"He doesn't _have_ a state of mind right now," Severide said as he watched Casey, who seemed completely oblivious to the fact they were talking about him like he wasn't even there.

"Adorable and empty headed, usually _my_ type," Cheetah said as she took a comb out of her purse and ran it over Casey's hair to make it lie flat. She looked at Severide's reflection in the mirror and added, "As it is I guess I'm stuck with you."

"If that's a compliment, ouch," Kelly responded. "So what's your name?"

"I told you, Cheetah."

"No, your real name," he said.

She turned her head, looked up at him and answered, "Catalina."

"Nice."

"My parents thought so, every single class I ever sat in until graduation thought otherwise," she replied as she turned her attention back to Casey.

"And Cheetah's better?"

"Well Jane and I come as a package deal in the beginning, we size up each other's dates and decide if it's worth pairing off, or if we should dump the losers after the first round of drinks and find a new hunting ground," she answered.

Cheetah put her comb away and snapped her purse shut and told Casey, "Don't you worry, honey, in a little bit you'll forget all about...what's her face."

"Gabby," he said automatically.

"Yeah, whatever, come on," she said as she pulled him to his feet and led him towards the door.

"Well _this_ should be interesting," Severide said as he followed behind them.

* * *

"I think we'd be better off getting out of here before we're thrown out," Jane told the others when they came back. "The manager ain't looking too happy."

"That's his problem," Cheetah said, "we'll just take our money to another bar and spend the night there."

"I know some places," Severide said.

"So do I, and our car's right outside," she replied, "what do you say?"

That took him by surprise and at first he wasn't sure how to answer. Then he told her, "My car's outside too."

"So what's the problem?" Jane asked. "We take our car, later we come back and drop you off, you two take your car."

Severide thought about it and decided they didn't have anything to lose. "Okay, let's go."

The four of them left the bar, Severide had to help Casey stay upright the whole way to the door, and as they walked out into the brisk night air, he watched to see which car the women went to, and saw it was a black 1966 Cadillac convertible with the top already down.

"Everybody in who's going in," Cheetah said as she opened the door on the driver's side.

Jane grabbed Casey away from Severide and told him, "Come on, you ride in the back with me."

"Exactly how do you keep anyone from stealing this thing?" Kelly asked as he climbed over the passenger side door.

"Oh we have our ways," Cheetah winked at him.

"O-okay," he replied with a confused expression.

He checked the rear view mirror and saw Casey and Jane already toppled over in the backseat making out like a couple of clumsy teenagers. Part of him felt happy for his friend, another part of him felt proud that Casey seemed to be rebounding rather quickly, but the other part of him felt perverted watching, so he adjusted the mirror so he couldn't see them, and he started to wonder how long it would take them to get to the next bar. Cheetah slowly backed the car out of the parking lot, then once it was obvious no traffic was coming, she shifted gears and buried the accelerator and they took off at high speed into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Their next stop was a bar and grill where the staff didn't automatically recognize any of them, so they didn't immediately have to worry about getting thrown out. They found an unoccupied table and ordered burgers and hot wings, and while everyone else got a round of beers, Severide worked out a deal with the waiter and personally kept Casey in supply of shot glasses filled from a bottle of whiskey, which had been emptied out earlier and refilled with iced tea, which Casey seemed to be too inebriated to tell the difference. Through dinner and conversation, he kept refilling the shot glasses and downing them like it was actual hardcore booze. In his condition he wasn't up for much talk, though somewhere in the conversation he'd brought up Gabby's name again before downing four shots of tea.

"Who's Gabby?" Jane asked.

"His ex," Severide said. "She was a real piece of work."

"Oh yeah? Any chance we'll be running into her tonight? Or more to the point, any chance she'll see us and come running with a tire iron?" Jane inquired only half jokingly.

"Nah, she left for Puerto Rico."

"Boy that _was_ a bad breakup, huh?" she asked.

"It was a bad marriage," Casey finally admitted in his drunken stupor. He tried to laugh but it came out as a half sob, and he stared down at the shot glasses and said, "We tried, and tried, and tried to make it work...and it just didn't. I don't know why. I called her my miracle. Can you believe that? I called her my miracle, and she left me...what the hell was wrong with me?"

"Don't blame yourself," Severide told him. "You take your mask off in a four alarm fire that's sucking all the oxygen out of your head, you're _bound_ to say something you don't mean. Especially when you think you're about to die, that _always_ brings out weird confessions that don't mean anything once the moment passes."

"So who is she? I mean what did she do?" Jane asked.

"She's a paramedic."

"Ain't that an on the job romance?" Cheetah asked, "I thought that was banned."

"It was while she was a firefighter...and it _should've_ been when she returned to ambo," Severide said, ignoring the dirty look Casey shot at him. "Looking back, the woman was _never_ quite right, but she got worse as time went on." He looked at Jane and opened his mouth to say something, then decided against it, then he turned to his date and asked her, "You ever color your hair?"

Cheetah sat up straight in the booth and asked defensively, "Is that supposed to be some kind of remark?"

"No," he answered.

"Oh...no," she ran a hand through her curly brown hair, "this is all natural."

"Well, Gabby's whole life she's had this long black hair."

"Not black," Casey spoke up, "brunette."

"Whatever, either way she looks like a Latina Morticia Addams," Severide said, "and as long as she sticks to her natural color, she's for the most part a reasonable person, is even capable of being humbled. Then about four years ago she starts coloring it so one side's more...what was that color anyway, Casey? Some kind of wood, right? Oak? Elm? Oh, I know, petrified."

"Cinnamon," Casey replied.

"Anyway," Severide said, "my point is I think her hair dye ate away at her brain, because once she started going lighter, there was _no_ talking sense into that woman, and all her crazy ideas got ten times crazier. If she had an idea everybody _better_ be on board with it or else, not even any time to consider if it could actually work."

"Wait a minute, I think I know the woman you're talking about," Jane said. "A couple years back my brother's wife called the paramedics because he was having chest pains. These two women came out, and one of them started raising all hell when she found out their kids weren't vaccinated."

"How'd that come about?" Severide asked.

"Apparently she thought my brother had some kind of respiratory thing that was going around, started asking if everybody in the family was up to date on their shots. Next thing my brother knows, the damn DCFS people are breaking down his door because _someone_ reported them for child neglect." Jane shook her head and noted, "I see you're not rushing for the door, does that fact bother you?"

Kelly shook his head. "No, all day long I deal with 1,000 degree fires, pulling people out of burning buildings, freezing lakes, off of bridges, rooftops, and poison gases flowing through the air because 50 pounds of plastic went up in smoke. So who has and hasn't had their measles shot is the least of my worries, besides, I already had them when I was a kid."

Jane shrugged her shoulders and explained, "Everyone in our family has allergic reactions to most things medical, anything that nobody else would have any problems with, we do. When our mom had a C-section, she told the doctor not to sew her up with nylon because she was allergic, he decided he knew better and it was all in her head...her stomach was swollen and infected for 6 months because the doctor knew better than the paranoid little woman who said 50 times she was allergic."

"You gotta be kidding me," Severide said with a disgusted look on his face.

"No, it gets better. My mom's brother only got his first chickenpox vaccine, immediately after which he got a high fever and got so sick he could hardly move for a week. After that their parents didn't take a chance with any of them. That's the stock we come from, our parents tried with us, they thought maybe it skipped a generation or something and we'd be safe. But no, my brother goes into convulsions, I on the other hand am in the hospital for two weeks with encephalitis, no permanent damage though, thank God. So fast forward 20 years, and my brother marries a woman whose whole family _also_ has bad reactions to everything. So yeah, big surprise they decide not to risk the likely chance their kids are _also_ allergic. Man, my sister-in-law couldn't shut up about that paramedic, they were in a 2 month legal battle with DCFS because of it, she had bleeding ulcers from the whole thing long before it was over."

"Word eventually gets around the firehouse about _all_ of Gabby's escapades...I sure never heard anything about that one," Severide said.

"Me either," Casey added.

"Not one of her finest moments I guess, given the case was eventually dropped," Jane replied. "And it's to my understanding that they finally had to take her out of the loop because she wouldn't stop trying to get updates from the social worker."

"Sounds like something she'd do though," Casey slurred as he poured himself another set of drinks. "Once she saw Louie, she was obsessed with kids, always thought she could fix any situation with them."

"Who's Louie?" Cheetah asked.

"A foster kid they took in," Severide said, "it's a long and sordid story, and having to give him back to his father _really_ seemed to throw her off kilter."

"Yeah well...no offense, but not having any personal contact with the woman myself, what I heard about her didn't strike me as being too bright," Jane told him. "Apparently she got it in her head my brother and his wife were a couple of organic gluten-free hippie morons that don't believe in medical science. We're not stupid people, we always knew to take precautions so we didn't get sick from anyone and nobody got sick from us."

"I can vouch for that," Cheetah spoke up, and reaching across the table, elbowed Casey and added, "Check her purse, she's got enough condoms in there to keep both the Army _and_ Navy stocked, so you two should be good for the night."

"Anyway," Jane continued, glaring daggers at her friend, "my brother raised his kids the same way, they even homeschooled their kids so nobody at the public school would have a bitch fit about how their kids are going to kill off the entire student body, even though contrary to popular belief they _are_ smart enough to figure out how to wash their hands, cover their mouths, and stay home when they're sick, something half of the people I work with every day have still _yet_ to master and they are 30 and 40 damn years old. But you think that woman bothered taking any time to figure any of that out before reporting them for child neglect?" She shook her head.

"Well thinking long term was never Gabby's strong suit," Severide said, then raised a finger and added, "she jumped into situations without thinking about the consequences, she had hair trigger emotions."

"Yeah, we don't know _anybody_ else like that, right, Severide?" Casey cocked his head knowingly. "Remember the whole Rice ordeal?"

Severide ignored his remark and continued, "Even that I could overlook if it wasn't for all her head games."

"Like what?" Cheetah asked.

Kelly turned to her and asked, "Let me ask you something, when you get ready to go out for the night do you ever, oh say, hold up two earrings and ask someone 'which looks better, these or these'?

"Why the hell would I do that?" she asked. "Nobody else has to wear them, _I_ do, so why would I ask anyone else's opinion?"

Severide clapped his hands together loudly, "I like you. Now Gabby..."

"Why is it _I_ was married to her and _you're_ the one with all the complaints?" Casey thought to ask.

"Because I could always go home to my girlfriend and tell her how _whipped_ you let yourself become," Severide said teasingly, and added, "And she agreed with me."

"Who's your girlfriend?" Jane asked.

Kelly turned to her and answered, "I don't have one anymore."

"She realized she was too good for him," Casey replied as he locked his fingers around the four shot glasses in front of him.

Kelly ignored that comment too and continued to tell the women, "Anyway, they're getting ready to go out for the night, and she wants him to say which earrings she should wear. He even asks 'which ones do you want me to pick?', and she gives him this BS line about she actually wants his honest opinion, and when he does, she does this," Severide tried to copy Gabby's infamous death stare.

"Man I remember when our parents used to whoop our asses for making faces like that," Cheetah said as she took a swig of her beer. "What happened to the good old days?"

"Well I'm not entirely unsympathetic, I used to be like that when I was younger, indecisive about everything, took forever to get ready for anything," Jane said, "never asked anybody eles's opinion though. One night I'm getting ready for a date, trying to decide between a set of diamond studs, or these big hoop earrings...finally said hell with it, put one in each ear...nobody even noticed, not my date, not my parents, nobody. That's when I learned once and for all there was no point asking other people what they thought."

"It wasn't even about what he thought, it was all about him saying what she wanted to hear, and reading her mind to do it," Severide responded.

"I've known a lot of people like that," Cheetah told him, "just like to hear themselves talk and like to hear everyone agree with everything they say. Many's the time I had to restrain myself from out and out killing them for being so annoying. And those are just the ones I work with. The ones I work _for_ are even worse."

"And you wonder why you're single," Jane commented.

"Look who's talking, at least I never stayed with some loser who told me what to do for six months," Cheetah replied, "tell them about the grade A jackass you just cut loose."

"I don't want to talk about that," Jane said in an embarrassed tone.

"Oh please, look at your date," Cheetah gestured to Casey, "guy's about to cry in his whiskey over this woman that left him and broke his heart into smithereens. If he's willing to talk about that, you should be willing to do the same, might cheer him up."

Casey got out an unamused laugh and slid down in his seat.

"Get back here," Severide reached across the table and jerked him back up. "You're not getting out of this that easily."

"Go ahead, tell them," Cheetah told her friend. "Tell them about the absolute _genius_ you hooked up with."

Jane leaned back in her chair, sighed, and turned her eyes down towards her food.

"His name was Marc Thorne, and he had a lot of issues."

"That's the understatement of the century," Cheetah said.

"Wait, wait," Kelly raised a hand, "that name sounds familiar...did he by chance ever talk about a brother that died years ago?"

Jane looked up at him. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Son of a bitch," Kelly said. "He sued our firehouse because his brother died in a warehouse fire."

"Seriously?" Cheetah asked.

Casey looked up and around at his dinner companions and though he didn't say anything, the expression in his eyes hinted that he was at least slightly interested in the sudden shift in conversation.

"You mean 5 years ago at Halloween?" Cheetah asked.

Kelly turned to her and said, "Yeah, how'd you know that?"

"That stupid headline in the paper, I remember that garbage like it was yesterday," she said. "Never made sense to me, the guy's brother was homeless, clearly wanted _nothing_ to do with him if he's resorting to sleeping in an abandoned warehouse instead of staying with him, but he dies and suddenly his brother is _so_ torn up with grief. Yeah, I remember that case, but I didn't remember the name of the bastard. Son of a bitch, if I'd known that I would've ridden his case far more than I did the whole time they were together. I would've kicked his ass."

"As you can probably guess," Jane said as she took a sip of her beer, "Cheetah is a very opinionated woman."

"So far I'm liking her opinions," Kelly said.

Casey looked across the table at her and asked the brunette, "Tell me some'ing, how long you gotta know a guy 'efore you go to bed with him?"

"Why, you interested?" she replied. She looked at Kelly and answered, "It just depends how blind, stupid drunk I plan on getting that night."

"Aha," Casey smacked the tabletop, "Severide, you found Mrs. Right."

Kelly ignored him because he knew Casey wouldn't remember anything he said the next morning anyway, but shifted gears and told the women, "That reminds me of something else Gabby did, it was that same year at Halloween."

"Severide, I don't want to hear it," Casey said.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say," Kelly said.

"I've heard it all before."

Severide shook his head. "Not this you didn't."

"What?" Casey asked, more in disbelief than pure curiosity.

"What?" the two women asked in all curiosity.

"Well see back then Casey was engaged to this woman named Hallie, and Gabby was _so_ jealous, so competitive...Hallie stopped by the firehouse one day to see Casey, and she and Gabby start talking, Hallie's a marathon runner and she's been killing herself to cut down her time to 48 minutes, Gabby can't be showed up so she just casually blurts out she did the same thing in 45 minutes, which is a total bold faced lie, but nobody can ever be better at anything than she is."

"Hallie never told me about that," Casey looked at Severide, "how did you know?"

"Shay told me, she was with Gabby when it happened," Kelly answered. "It was when they were manning the candy bowl waiting on the trick-or-treaters."

Casey fell back against his chair in disbelief as that sunk in.

"She really did have issues, eh?" Jane asked.

"So what exactly was her hangup?" Cheetah asked, "Is she one of those types that daddy never paid enough attention to or something? Or maybe one that daddy liked a little too much?"

"Well the way I understand it as her brother told it to me," Kelly started to respond, "Her father isn't even her fa-"

"Don't tell them that, it's a private matter," Casey said.

"How private could it be? Their dad announced to a room full of 50 people at their 40th anniversary that he was divorcing his wife," Severide responded.

"That was family."

"And us."

"We're family."

"And you know how long anything stays secret in a firehouse," Kelly pointed out. "Everything's fair game."

"An' _you_ wonder why no woman will stay with you," Casey pointed accusingly.

Cheetah thought of something and casually mentioned to Jane, "Maybe we should've taken this into consideration before." She addressed the two men and asked them, "You two happen to be brothers?"

"No!" they both answered in unison.

"That's a horrible thing to say!" Casey told her.

"Well you sure coulda fooled me," she replied.

Casey shook his head and kept repeating 'no' like a mantra. "There is no way in hell I'd ever be related to him."

"I don't know, Casey, if our parents ever met..."

"No!" Casey insisted. He pointed an accusing finger at Severide and told him, "Benny ever comes within 10 feet of my mom, I'm killing him myself, I don't care if he is your dad."

"So you guys' folks aren't still together?" Jane asked.

"Tha's a laugh," Casey said as he sunk down in his seat again.

"That's a long and sordid story," Kelly answered.

Casey pulled himself back up and told the women, "His dad ran out on his mom, and a dozen other women since...my mom killed my dad, an' just got out 'a prison a few years ago."

"Okay, so it's a short and sordid story," Kelly amended his previous statement.

Cheetah looked at Jane and commented, "Huh, Mom was right, date a fireman and there's never a dull moment."

Kelly turned and looked at her curiously. "You date a lot of firemen?"

"What's the matter, honey, scared of the competition?" she asked.

That caught him off guard and he paused for a beat before answering with a hesitant laugh, "Uh, no...no, I'm," he shook his head, "definitely not."

She half turned in the booth and looked at him and asked coyly, "Care to prove it?"

Before Severide could think up an answer, he became aware of somebody very _closely_ watching them. He looked to the other booth and saw Casey had his head resting on the table staring intriguingly at the two of them with big eyes like a basset hound, just waiting to see what happened next.

"Knock it off," he said warningly.

"It's your fault I'm here," Casey told him as he picked his head up off the tabletop, "if you'd just left me at Molly's like I wanted, you wouldn't be having this problem."

"Who's Molly?" Jane asked.

"It's a bar some of our friends own," Severide said.

"What?" Cheetah shot up in her seat, "You guys know a perfectly good bar in your reach and didn't invite us there?"

Severide motioned for her to shut up and told them in a low tone, "His ex-wife owns one-third of the place."

"Ohhh," Jane said.

"Then what was he doing there?" Cheetah asked unsympathetically.

"What I always do, the right thing," Casey said with a slur, "Which usually gets my ass kicked for it." He downed another shot of tea and told them, "I went to tell e'eryone that Gabby wou'n't be coming in to work on nex' shift, thought it'd be better than havin' em all fin' out last minute. Better 'en Gabby giving them her version first...or worse, not telling them at all."

"So what happens to her share of the bar now?" Cheetah asked.

Jane reached across the table and elbowed her.

"I dunno," Casey laid his head back on the table, "prob'ly turn it over to Otis an' Cruz."

"And who're they?"

"Two other firefighters," Casey answered.

"What is it, a members only thing?" Cheetah asked.

"I'sa _looong_ story," he replied.

Severide tapped Cheetah on the shoulder and murmured to her, "You said something earlier about pairing off?"

She looked across the table at Jane and Casey and responded, "Might not be a bad idea before he passes out completely and the whole night's shot. Let's get the check and go."


	4. Chapter 4

They left the bar, got back in the car and drove along in silence, this time the two passengers in the backseat actually stayed upright in their seats and just stared at the road ahead.

"Where' we going?" Casey finally asked after a few minutes.

"I know a great motel nearby," Cheetah said, "reasonable rates, clean sheets, liquor store across the street, can't ask for more than that."

"Oh yeah?" Severide asked. "You got a lot of frequent flier miles with the place?"

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know?" she replied coyly.

"Stop, stop!" Casey slurred as he tried to get up in his seat, "stop the car!" Jane reached over and pulled him back to keep him from falling out.

"What's with him?" Cheetah turned her head back towards them.

"I'm gonna throw up," Casey said.

"Good reason," Cheetah faced forward again, changed lanes, made a _very_ sharp turn and swerved into the parking lot of a bowling alley.

"Well if _that_ didn't do it," Jane dryly commented.

"Everybody _out_ ," Cheetah said.

They did, and headed for the entrance. The place was crowded and the whole building echoed with the sound of bowling balls rolling down lanes and hitting pins, and the people at the bar watching a game on TV. Casey looked around for the men's room, and just as he spotted it he saw something else that turned the expression on his face from simple nausea to downright horror.

"Oh no," he groaned, and turned and ran towards the restroom.

"I better go with him and make sure he doesn't fall in," Severide told the women.

"What do you think happened?" Jane asked.

"I don't...uh oh," Severide saw what he figured Casey must've seen, and was quickly of the same mind as his friend.

"What?" Jane asked as she and Cheetah turned to see what it was he was seeing.

Over by the pool table was a tall guy in his 40s with short black hair and a crooked nose, who was chalking his cue and chatting it up with a couple ladies.

"Who's that?" Cheetah asked.

Severide felt his stomach drop as he answered, "Chief Pat Pridgen."

"Your boss?" she asked.

"Not anymore, thank God," Severide told them, and explained, "he temporarily replaced our Battalion chief a few years ago. To sum it up, he's a dick, he had no idea what he was doing, only cared about his reputation, was not willing to put himself in any line of fire, and treated everyone at 51 like crap...in fact..."

"In fact what?" Cheetah asked.

"It was in a bowling alley like this...we responded to some guy who got caught in the pin setter...and Otis...he's one of the owners of Molly's, slipped on the lane and fell down, couldn't get up...and that..." he pointed towards Pridgen, "bastard, humiliated him in front of everyone...called him gutter ball."

"Ya don't say," Cheetah remarked. "I thought firefighters busted each other's balls all the time, just part of the job description, ain't it?"

"There's that, and then there's what _he_ did," Severide replied. "Guy wouldn't know what it means to be a chief if it bit him in the ass."

Somehow over the varied noises of the bowling alley, the three of them heard the muffled and strained sounds of Casey puking in the bathroom and Severide told them, "I better check on him."

Once he took off, the two women stood there in silence and looked at each other.

* * *

"You okay now?" Kelly asked.

Casey shut off the faucet and pulled himself back into an upright position. "I think so."

Kelly reached into his jacket pocket and took out a pack of breath mints, "Better take a few of these or you're not gonna get _anywhere_ with your date tonight."

Casey popped half a dozen mints in his mouth and sucked on them, but he told Severide, "I don't _want_ to get anywhere with her."

"What?"

"I want to go home," Casey said.

Severide shook his head, "No you don't."

"Well I'm not going with her to a cheap motel," Casey told him.

"Why not?"

"I can't do that, Severide, I'm still married."

"You said yourself it's over, and _I've_ got the ring to prove it."

"It doesn't matter, I still am, it wouldn't be right."

"Who's gonna know?" Kelly asked.

" _I_ will. I can't do it," Casey shook his head.

"You know, your conscience is getting to be real annoying," Severide said.

"I didn't ask for your opinion," Casey replied.

"You're nuts," Severide told him. "You got a gorgeous woman out there who doesn't care _anything_ about your last relationship _or_ the fact you're still _technically_ married, who is likely willing to jump into bed with you in a second and if face value counts for anything, looks like she'd be worth the time...and you don't want to sleep with her."

"No, I don't," Matt replied. He looked at Kelly, switched gears, and asked him, "Am I that drunk or is that Chief Pridgen out there?"

"It's him," Severide grunted.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Casey shook his head. "I _can't_ deal with another confrontation right now."

Severide was nothing if not sympathetic. "Okay, here's what we're going to do, we're going to quietly slip out of here and hope he doesn't spot us."

Casey nodded in agreement. "Let's go."

They headed to the door and made their way back into the crowded, deafening bowling alley. Everywhere around them, noises reverberating all through the building; balls hitting pins, drunks screaming at the TV, music from the jukebox, laser sounds from the arcade, the sound of breaks being made at the pool tables, the nonstop chatter between everyone. Casey was almost to the door when Severide grabbed him back and pointed out, "Something's wrong here, _where_ are our dates?"

Casey turned back and looked around, he honestly hadn't given it any thought, now that Kelly had stated the obvious he too was curious, where _were_ Jane and Cheetah? They looked around, and both felt their eyes bulge when they saw the two women standing at one of the pool tables talking to Pridgen.

"What the hell?" Casey asked.

That's what Severide wanted to know too. They got a little closer so they could actually hear what was going on without being seen. Jane was two inches from being right on top of Pridgen and was holding a pool cue and laughing at something he said. Cheetah was standing a foot away from them but also seemed to be going along with the conversation.

"So what does a fire chief do?" Jane asked in a far ditzier tone than the one she'd used to inquire of Casey what an alderman did.

Pridgen laughed egotistically and answered, "Stands around and tells everyone else what to do."

Casey and Severide looked to each other with a mutual un-amused expression.

"Okay," Casey told Severide, "I'm kicking his ass."

Before Severide had a chance to point out that wasn't the best idea, their attention was drawn to a sudden commotion that had broken out. Over at the pool table, a tall, muscular black man had come up and shoved Pridgen against the table and demanded to know, "You son of a bitch, what the hell's the idea of talking to my woman?"

"Hey back off, hair ball," Cheetah said, "we're having a good time."

The man's response was to hit her in the stomach and then shove her out of the way. Before Pridgen was able to do anything in response, the man picked up a tray of beer bottles from off a table and hit him over the head with the whole thing. Pridgen slid down to the floor in a daze, and all hell broke loose. Several of the people nearby got in on the fight, having no real idea what it was about, but just jumped into a drunken brawl.

Casey wasn't sure if he was actually seeing things as they were happening or if he was too drunk to make that distinction, he turned to Kelly and asked him, "Severide, what the hell's going on?"

"I'm not even sure," Kelly answered with his jaw hanging in awe.

The black man who had started the whole thing came up out of a pile of bodies with Pridgen in something between a choke hold and bear hug, and ran towards the bowling lane and sent the Interim Chief sliding face first towards the pins. Casey and Severide were dumbstruck and weren't sure how to respond but both finally got out an amused laugh at the chief's expense.

"Look at the gutter ball!" the man said as Pridgen struggled to get back to his feet.

Jane and Cheetah came running over to the guys and told them, "Let's get the hell out of here."

Without stopping to question what had just happened, the four of them tore out of there, got back in Cheetah's car and burned rubber.

"What was that all about?" Kelly asked.

"I know that guy back there," Cheetah said, "he owed me a favor."

"Go to jail for assault and battery, must be a pretty big favor," Kelly said.

"You got it," she replied.

Jane turned towards Casey and asked him, "So you feeling better now?"

"Uh, yeah...yeah, I think so," he said with a nod.

"Oh good," Jane knocked him down in the backseat, the sudden momentum brought his leg up and kicked Severide in the back of the head. He turned to see what was going on and saw Jane on top of Casey looking like she was about to swallow his lips, for his own part the only thing Severide could be sure of was that Casey at least wasn't trying to fight her off.

"You two cool it till we actually get to the motel," Cheetah looked in the rear view mirror. "Last thing I need is to get stopped on a charge of indecent exposure."

"Hurry up," Jane replied from the backseat.

Out of nowhere, a black muscle car came up the next lane and nearly clipped them.

"What the hell was that?" Severide asked.

They caught up with the other car at a red light. The driver was a young man in his 20s who looked like he'd just as soon kick any of them in the face as talk to them. He shot a knowing look in their direction.

"Fool wants a race," Cheetah said, "we'll race."

Severide looked at her, but before he had time to ask if she was serious, the light changed and both cars took off at high speed and Kelly felt his body thrown back against his seat. He tried to look over and see what the speedometer was at but before he could, they sped up again. It seemed like the longest time they were the only two cars on the road neck and neck with each other. Severide looked around expecting at any second for a cop car to come at them with lights flashing and siren blaring, but there was nothing. Cheetah nudged the steering wheel to the left and very quickly inched towards the other car before returning to her lane.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kelly asked.

"You'll see," she replied.

She reached for the gearshift and in one swift move threw the car in reverse and hit the gas just as the other car careened over to their lane, then inexplicably hit the curb. Cheetah hit the brake and the tires squealed as they finally came to a stop, and she and Severide laughed as they saw the other car had not only gone up on the curb but also taken out a fire hydrant in the process. The driver however, seemed to have gotten out of his car unscathed and was waving a fist at them and hurling obscenities their way.

"Oh boy am I glad we ain't on shift," Severide commented.

"Well he's going to have an interesting story to tell the cops now," Cheetah said as she put the car in gear, "now let's get the hell out of here before we become part of it."

Severide turned in his seat and started to ask, "Did you see that, Casey?", then realized the Truck lieutenant and his date were still laid out in the backseat making out and didn't seem fazed by the 100 mph chase whatsoever. "Huh," he said as he turned to the front again, "guess everybody has a different kind of adrenaline rush."

A few minutes later, Cheetah announced as she pulled up to a motel with bright neon lights that could blind the whole neighborhood, "Here we are, let's get signed in."

"So how exactly are we doing this?" Severide asked as they piled out of the car, not able to recall right offhand the last time he actually had to take a date to a motel instead of his place, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith?"

"Just leave it to us, giggles," Cheetah said as she headed for the front desk.

Kelly looked behind him and saw Jane seemed to be partially holding Casey upright as they followed after them. The four of them stopped in the front office, and the clerk there seemed to recognize Cheetah. She signed the log book for all of them and they got two keys, rooms next to each other, Severide noted. They left the office, headed upstairs and headed to their assigned rooms.

Kelly unlocked his door and called over to Matt, "See ya in the morning."

"See ya," Casey replied with a little slur.

Kelly held the door open, Cheetah walked in ahead of him, he followed her, and Casey followed right after him just before the door closed. A second later the door opened again and Severide forcefully walked Casey back out and over towards Jane and commented, "I believe this belongs to you."

"I was starting to wonder," the blonde replied as she escorted Casey over to their own cabin.

* * *

"You are perverse, you know that?" Cheetah asked as she lay on the bed and watched Severide.

The Squad leader hadn't been able to pull himself away from the adjoining wall between their and Casey's rooms. He'd stood there for nearly 15 minutes just listening.

"I can't hear anything," he said as he shook his head.

"Why you would even _want_ to is beyond me," Cheetah replied. "Get over here!"

Grunting, Kelly finally pulled himself away from the wall and headed towards her.

"You stalling for time or just trying to pick up some pointers?" she asked.

Severide sat down on the other side of the bed and explained, "No, just hoping I didn't push Casey into something he wasn't ready for. He's taking his breakup pretty hard."

"And when has that ever stopped a man?" Cheetah inquired.

"Casey might be the first," Severide said.

"Eh, don't worry about him, I'm sure Jane will be able to help him forget all about what's-her-face."

"Gabby."

"Yeah whatever," Cheetah replied. "My point is Jane can keep him more than occupied, so let's just focus on us."

* * *

In the room next door, Casey and Jane were seated on the floor by the bed, Casey had started talking to her as soon as the door closed, and hadn't stopped since. Casey held his hands in front of him and told her, "There is nothing in the world that can even come close to the experience of breathing life into a newborn baby...there are no words to describe it. All I ever wanted to do was have kids and start a family...I never knew how much I wanted it until that moment."

Jane just sat next to him and nodded and let him talk.

Casey sucked in a pained breath as he recalled, "The doctor said it was too risky, so I said we wouldn't try...and she walked out on me because of it...it's all I ever wanted, but I wasn't going to risk her life for it."

"Then _she's_ the one with the problem," Jane said, "there are a lot of men who would've said to hell with the consequences and did it anyway, not even cared if it killed her or not. She didn't know how good she had it with you."

"And now, she's off in Puerto Rico doing whatever..."

"And whoever," Jane tossed in.

"And I'm here obsessing over her," Casey added.

"Something's not right here," she told him.

Casey squeezed his eyes shut and groaned, "I'm so tired."

"It's been a long night."

"I am sick and tired of feeling like the bad guy when I know I haven't done anything wrong," Casey told her, "everything I did that she didn't like, I had my reasons, she was never willing to listen to them."

"Oh believe me, been there, done that, wore that T-shirt to rags," Jane replied.

"I don't even know who she was," Casey moaned.

"Come on, let's get on the bed," Jane said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.

"She wanted to be a firefighter instead of a paramedic, I told her it was too dangerous..."

"Lie down," Jane pushed him back against the pillows.

Casey was unfazed and continued. "I know paramedic is dangerous enough, that's the thing, it's dangerous _enough_ , an' I know firs'hand what can happen in fires...they never come in once it's that bad, they stand outside and wait and tend to the victims _we_ bring out...she won't hear it, is' her life, she'll do what she wants...and what happens?"

"What?" Jane asked, humoring him more than anything.

"She becomes a firefighter...then she finds Louie, then she decides firefighting is too dangerous, and goes _back_ to paramedic, she won't hear of it when _I_ suggest it, but she pulls a boy out she wants to adopt, suddenly i'sa good idea. An' you know what?"

"What?" Jane asked as she straddled him and set to work pulling his shirt off over his head.

"What Severide said earlier about her and Hallie, got me to thinking..."

"Oh?"

"First Gabby was a paramedic...but she _wanted_ to become a doctor...Hallie was a doctor..."

"Ah, more of that competitive streak, eh?" Jane asked as she tossed his shirt halfway across the room.

"I dunno...then she backed out of her pre-med training...decided to stay a paramedic... _then_ she wanted to be a firefighter."

"Who was a firefighter?" Jane asked.

"All of us."

"Any women?"

"No. Not yet."

"Oh, she proved her place with the girls so then she wanted to be one of the boys, eh?"

"I guess so," Casey got out an unamused laugh, "she certainly thought she wore the pants in the relationship. I won'er."

"What?"

"If _she_ even knew who she was," Casey murmured, "every time she just got settled in one role, she had to trade up for another."

"Take it from me, Matt," Jane told him, "people like that are _never_ happy, it wouldn't have mattered what you did."

"I know...I just can't accept it."

"Why? Because you're the kind of guy who can fix anything?"

"I certainly try."

"Matt."

"Eh?"

"Are you opposed to one night of fun, no questions asked, no babies popping up 9 months later?"

He thought about it for a second. "No."

"Then shut up and let's just have a good time," Jane said.

He thought about that for a second too and decided, "Okay."

Jane got off of him and the bed and went over to the dresser where she'd left her purse. When she turned around and went back to the bed, she saw Casey laying back against the pillows in a dead sleep.

"Neither of us can win for losing," she said with a sigh as she sat on the edge of the bed and watched him. She poked him in the chest a few times to get a response, and there was none, he was _out_.

"Oh well," she said as she reached in her purse, "Might as well have a little fun anyway." She took out a tube of blackish purple lipstick, heavily coated both lips, closed the tube, leaned over Casey's body and slowly kissed one spot on his chest, then another.

A/N: One more chapter to go!


	5. Chapter 5

Severide heard a noise and shot up in bed, for a minute he would've sworn somebody was calling him. He didn't remember right away where he was but it slowly started to come back to him. He looked at the digital clock on the nightstand, 2:38, how long had he been asleep? He turned over and froze for a second when he saw the woman asleep beside him, _that_ was a little slower to come back to him.

"Cheetah?"

"Hm? Huh?" the brunette woman woke up and looked at him, "what happened?"

"I don't know." Severide wracked his brain, trying to remember the last thing that happened before he fell asleep. Nothing was coming to him.

Cheetah yawned and commented, "I didn't feel a thing." Almost as an afterthought she looked at him and added, "Oh but you were terrific."

Kelly didn't pay her much mind. It was slowly dawning on him that they hadn't done _anything_. He rolled his eyes and fell back against the pillows, he must finally be starting to get old, hitting the hay was more appealing than hitting the sheets. He tried to figure out what it was that had woken him up in the first place. He turned towards Cheetah and asked, "Did you hear something?"

"No," she answered.

There it was again, and now Severide realized it was a car down below. There was a door slam and it sounded like people yelling. Kelly and his date both threw back the covers, apparently both of them had fallen asleep before even getting undressed, and went over to the window and looked out to the parking lot down below. There were three people standing down there yelling at each other about something.

"What do you think that is?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know but I'd bet nothing good," she replied. She saw him head towards the door, "Where're you going?"

Kelly went out and saw Casey coming out of the other room, just getting his shirt on, and he told the Truck lieutenant, "Oh good, you're up. I'm going next door to complain about the noise, you want in?"

Casey didn't look too much more alert now than he had earlier, but he sounded slightly more alert as he responded, "Yeah, let's kick some ass."

Outside the noise of the three men fighting down below was far louder than it had been behind closed windows. The two firefighters headed down the stairs and got a brief look at the three men in the parking lot where the flashing neon lights couldn't reach them, who were screaming at each other and starting to beat each other up. It still wasn't possible for either of them to decipher what the fighting was about, but Severide addressed the whole group as they approached and yelled at them, "Hey, shut up! People are trying to sleep around here!"

The biggest man of the bunch swung at Severide and told him, "Get the hell out of here, mind your own business!"

Severide just ducked the blow and responded by kneeing the guy in the crotch, which took him down, but then he was ambushed by one of the other two men who knocked him to the ground. Casey came up behind that guy and kicked his leg out from under him, causing him to fall on his ass, but then he too was knocked down by the third man, and the melee began.

* * *

Severide shook his head and rolled his eyes. Any movement below the neck was severely impaired since he had a weight pressing on his shoulder. That weight was Casey's head, who was out cold and currently using the Squad lieutenant's shoulder for a pillow. How Casey could even be asleep was beyond him, but he guessed he should be grateful for that much.

There wasn't much you could actually be said to be thankful for when you were sitting in a holding cell all night. Their attempt to break up the fight in the motel parking lot hadn't gone as planned, and instead they both got their asses kicked about as much as they kicked back, then somebody called the cops, and for reasons Severide couldn't figure out, only he and Casey had been hauled in for their role in the brawl. He didn't even know what happened to Jane and Cheetah, he didn't remember seeing them after he and Casey went downstairs. Maybe they were smart and took off before the cops came, the last thing they needed was anybody else being rounded up in this mess.

Now that he thought about it, he supposed the one thing _he_ could be thankful for was that they were the only people in the cell. He didn't have a problem kicking anybody else's ass before the night was over if he had to, but he was glad, for the time being anyway, that he _didn't_ have to.

Casey murmured in his sleep and craned his head at an angle and had it pressed more against Severide's collarbone than his shoulder. Kelly was at least able to move his arm again, and reached over and pulled Casey tighter against him. He wasn't sure how they were going to explain this one come next shift, or even if Casey was going to be talking to him at all when he woke up, but it had definitely been one hell of a wild ride. Looking at the man sleeping against him, Kelly had to sigh, his plans might've backfired to all hell, but he'd had good intentions, in the beginning anyway. He had no idea that before the night was over they would've met those two crazy women, he figured they'd get lucky if he could get a couple waitresses to make out with Casey in between their drunken carousing around town. Once they'd actually gotten saddled with a couple of dates, who it seemed were willing to go along with them for anything, then the night had taken on a whole new angle, and it hadn't merely been going along to lift Casey's spirits and take his mind off Gabby, but just in general pushing the boundaries every time to see how far it could go. He replayed the night's events and felt like it had all been a craps game, he could've called it good and settled for what they had at any time, walked away, but he had to keep pressing his luck. He could've stayed in his motel room and ignored the noise, and slept till the next morning, everybody say their goodbyes and go home to change, but no, he had to show those drunken morons, and now he was the one paying the price. Correction, _both_ of them.

* * *

Kelly wasn't sure when but he must've fallen asleep sometime during the night, because the next thing he knew, he woke up when he heard somebody walking down the corridor towards their cell. He guessed it must've been morning. Casey was still leaned against him with his head pressed against Kelly's shoulder. Severide nudged him and told him, "Casey, wake up."

"Hmm?" Casey slowly opened his eyes, then lifted his head, turned it one way and the other to get his neck to pop, and started to realize where they were.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Sounds like somebody's coming for us," Severide said.

"Now what?" Casey asked.

"I don't know, I guess we're heading to a bail hearing."

"Great," Casey grumbled as he ran a hand through his hair and tried to pull himself together.

Two people stopped in front of their cell door. One of them was a cop for the district. The other was definitely not anyone they were expecting to see.

"Voight!" Severide exclaimed in surprise.

The Intelligence sergeant stood on the other side of the door and looked at the two firefighters sitting inside, and he couldn't suppress the grin on his face.

"Oh this is just too funny," Voight said as he looked at them, "first you put _me_ in jail, now _you're_ on the other side of the bars."

"Hank, what're you doing here?" Casey asked as he and Kelly stood up.

"You're sprung," Voight answered as the door opened, "the motel manager decided not to press charges."

"What about the other guys?" Severide asked.

"Those he _did_ press charges against," Voight answered, "they're being rounded up as we speak."

The two lieutenants exited the holding cell and Severide asked the sergeant, "How'd you know we were here?"

The only thing Voight said for an answer was, "Somebody must really like you," and he pointed back the way he and the other cop had come.

Casey and Severide looked and saw a woman they didn't recognize heading their way. She was a tall brunette with tight curls, dressed in a navy blue dress suit with matching high heels, everything prim, proper and tucked in. At her side she clutched a black briefcase.

"Lieutenants Casey and Severide," she said formally.

"Yeah," Kelly replied hesitantly. He looked at the woman closer and noted the tiger striped bracelet on her wrist. "Cheetah?" he asked in disbelief.

"Catalina Forrester, attorney-at-law, my card," she said as she handed one towards him. "You better take one, you strike me as a guy who doesn't need any help to get into trouble."

"You're a defense attorney?" Kelly asked.

"Surprised?"

"Is Jane a lawyer too?" Casey asked.

"Oh God, no," she laughed, "she's an aerobics instructor at the gym."

"So," Kelly pointed a thumb towards Hank, "How do you know Voight?"

"Oh he sends me all the people from 21 he thinks could use a break," she answered, "I figured he could repay the favor for once."

Somehow Casey's hungover mind was able to put two and two together and he asked, "So that guy that beat the hell out of Pridgen last night, that you said owed you a favor?"

"A repeat client," Catalina answered, "He's in and out of lockup all the time anyway, he don't mind one more time, he knows my services are worth it. Speaking of which, he's my first order of business this morning. You'd think making the case for a guy with 20 arrests beating the hell out of a fire chief would be a tough argument to make...until you start doing research on the interim chief in question."

Severide looked at her with eyed bulged in surprise.

"Turns out this Pridgen guy is one strike away from losing all his bugles, so even if he doesn't go to jail, his career is going to be over after today," she said.

"Wait, what?" Casey slowly tried to put it all together.

"You mean you're going to ruin Pridgen's career just because of what he did to Otis?" Kelly asked.

"No," she shook her head, "I'm gonna ruin him because he's a disgusting prick who deserves it."

"You serious?" Casey asked.

"You see me laughing?" she replied.

"I see you grinning," Kelly said.

"And you ain't?" she said in response. "It's 6 A.M., go on home, get out of here, _oh_ , I took the liberty of having your car brought down here."

"How?" Severide asked.

"Don't ask and you'll be a lot happier," Catalina told him.

"Well I don't know what to say...thank you."

"Don't mention it, honey, I had a great time last night," she said, "we'll have to do it again sometime."

Voight clapped a hand on Casey's back and told him, "Come on, you got to sign for your personal effects."

* * *

"I'm sorry, Casey," Severide said as he finished signing for his stuff and handed the form back to the desk sergeant.

"Don't be," Casey replied as he collected his stuff that had been confiscated during the arrest, "You kept your promise.

"What?" Kelly turned to him.

"You said before the night was over I wouldn't even be thinking about Gabby, and you were right," Casey said, "whole time we were in that holding cell, she was the furthest thing from my mind."

Severide rolled his eyes.

"And the rest of the night was fun," Casey added, "I guess it's true what they say, a real friend isn't the one who comes to bail you out, he's the one sitting beside you in jail. Thanks. It definitely beat the hell out of staying at Molly's feeling sorry for myself."

"Anytime, buddy."

"I don't know about that, I think double dating with you is hazardous for my health," Casey said as they left the precinct, "but it was nice while it lasted."

"Casey," Kelly called to him.

Matt turned around, Severide walked over to him and held out the gold band he'd gotten back at the front desk. He gave it back to Casey.

Casey looked at the ring in his hand for a minute, then turned around and threw it as far as he could, it disappeared somewhere on the other side of the street with a pronounced _clink_. He turned back to Kelly and told him, "I hope Gabby finds whatever it is she's looking for and I hope she's finally happy when she does. I'm done."

"You alright, buddy?" Kelly asked.

Casey looked at him and slowly nodded. "Yeah, I think I am. For the first time in a _long_ time, I think I really am."

"What're you gonna do now?" Severide asked.

"I'm gonna go home, take a shower, and sleep off the rest of the day," Matt answered.

"Sounds like a plan. See you next shift?" Kelly asked.

"You know it. It's going to be confusing enough as is without _two_ of us absent."

Severide nodded. "See you then."

* * *

Once Casey actually got back to his apartment he debated with himself whether he just wanted to fall into bed and sleep off the rest of the day and then get a shower whenever he woke up, or if he wanted to save himself the trip to the bedroom and just crash on the couch instead. Finally he decided he would just bite the bullet, get the shower first, _then_ collapse. He went into the bathroom and turned on the hot water and let it run for a few minutes while he started to undress. Standing before the bathroom mirror he realized he needed a shave...and it was about time to get a haircut. He turned to the side and about freaked out when he saw a large bruise on the side of his neck, he didn't remember getting _that_ last night. He pressed a finger against the unshapely mark and felt something dry and caked on under his fingers. Pressing his finger against the front of his neck he saw a streak of purple roughly form on his skin, and he sighed in relief as he realized it wasn't a bruise, it was lipstick. He certainly didn't remember _that_ from last night, but looking at it now he realized Jane must've given him a hickey. Didn't remember that either. Stretching out the neck of his shirt he saw that the purple blotches continued on under the hickey, and took his shirt off to get a better look at it.

Several things occurred to him at the same time and he couldn't tell what to focus on first. There were blemished lip prints all up and down his upper torso. In between those though, he saw something else. Looking at the mirror image it took him a minute to realize the numbers perfectly scrawled under his collarbone in the same blackish purple color as the lip marks, were backwards, and another minute to realize that they were Jane's phone number. He tried to picture that scene last night, him unconscious in their bed at the motel and her hovered over him scrawling her phone number on his chest with her tube of lipstick. He couldn't quite picture it, but he knew that had to be the way it happened.

Casey stood in front of the mirror and stared at the seven digits for several minutes, trying to make sense of it all, and trying to figure out what to do with this information. Finally, he dug in his pocket, took out his phone, and added her number to his contacts list. He would try calling her later. He would see if she wanted to go out again sometime, _alone_.


End file.
